UPDATE 2022-05-25 (MAME 0.244):
Full 585.25GB CHDs + 70.23GB ROMs + 64.31GB EXTRAs + Quick How to Guide
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There are too many outdated torrents and information, and the CHDs torrent generated by archive.org has garbage padding files and only has files up to 0-9A-C.

I am tired of it and I know you are too, so here are the latest.

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What's new in 0.244:
https://www.mamedev.org/releases/whatsnew_0244.txt

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LATEST TORRENTS (Torrents updated 2022-05-25):

Magnet links:

CHDs 0.243 Full (no changes in 0.244) (Merged, 585.25GB torrent, 100+ seeds):
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:e5aee5d6a78637d2f2bcb1349f876778520943cb&dn=MAME%200.243%20CHDs%20(merged)&tr=http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce

ROMs 0.244 Full (Merged, 70.23GB torrent, 100+ seeds):
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ec186559da3ac6f266ad13b521360a43516a5406&dn=MAME%200.244%20ROMs%20(merged)&tr=http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce

ROMs 0.243 to 0.244 Update (Merged, 7.9MB torrent):
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:e406ed7f61c81ba5ea12796ed7295018680167a9&dn=MAME%20-%20Update%20ROMs%20(v0.243%20to%20v0.244)&tr=http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce

EXTRAs 0.242 (artwork/cheats/snap/titles/manuals/etc, 64.31GB torrent, 50+ seeds):
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:67189b08addd7dd1675141f8060650de668e24f8&tr=http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce

.torrent files:

CHDs 0.243 Full (no changes in 0.244) (Merged, 585.25GB torrent, 100+ seeds):
https://archive.org/download/mame-chds-roms-extras-complete/MAME%200.243%20CHDs%20%28merged%29%20Full%20585.25GB.torrent

ROMs 0.244 Full (Merged, 70.23GB torrent, 100+ seeds):
https://archive.org/download/mame-chds-roms-extras-complete/MAME%200.244%20ROMs%20%28merged%29%20Full%2070.23GB.torrent

ROMs 0.243 to 0.244 Update (Merged, 7.9MB torrent, 100+ seeds):
https://archive.org/download/mame-chds-roms-extras-complete/MAME%200.244%20ROMs%20%28merged%29%200.243%20to%200.244%20Update%207.9MB.torrent

EXTRAs 0.242 Full (artwork/cheats/snap/titles/manuals/etc) (64.31GB torrent, 50+ seeds):
https://archive.org/download/mame-chds-roms-extras-complete/MAME%200.242%20EXTRAs%20%28artwork%2Ccheats%2Csnap%2Ctitles%2Cmanuals%2Cetc%29%20Full%2064.31GB.torrent

Individual files download (ROMs + CHDs + EXTRAs):
https://archive.org/download/mame-chds-roms-extras-complete

Tracker with the most seeds (100+):
http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce

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QUICK HOW TO GUIDE (Guide updated 2022-05-27):

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STEP 1 - Basics
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1) Download and install MAME ( https://www.mamedev.org/ )
2) Know that:
a) MAME considers CHD files as ROM files, CHDs are just bigger ROMs
b) MAME doesn't care where you put the CHDs or ROMs as long as all ROMs/CHDs directories are added to the rom path configuration.
c) That means you can add the torrent directories to MAME, and update MAME's database while ROMs/CHDs are being downloaded one by one, you can also pick which ROMs to download first, read how to do this below.

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STEP 2 - Download the ROMs and CHDs
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1) Install and run qBittorrent ( https://www.qbittorrent.org/ )
2) In qBittorrent, click [open url] or [add magnet link], a box will pop up.
3) Paste into the box the two magnet links from above, one line per link ( magnet:?xt=urn:btih:xxxxxxxxxxxxx... )
4) Click [Download] or [OK] to close the box.
5) You should now see in the qBittorent [Transfers] tab there are two torrents being added, [MAME 0.2xx ROMs (merged)] and [MAME 0.2xx CHDs (merged)].
6) If you have waited for a minute and the torrents are not downloading, manually add a torrent tracker to each torrent, so that qBittorrent knows what peers/seeds to download from, do this by:
a) From qBittorrent [Transfers] tab, select one of the torent ([MAME 0.2xx ROMs (merged)] or [MAME 0.2xx CHDs (merged)])
b) Click the [Trackers] tab (between [General] and [Peers])
c) Right click anywhere in the tracker list for a pop-up menu
d) Click [Add a new tracker...], a box [List of trackers to add] will pop up.
e) Paste the following tracker URL into the box and press [OK]: http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce
f) You should now see [http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce] in the tracker list, watch the [Peers] and [Seeds] column, there should be more than 100.
g) Do this once for the ROMs torrent and once for the CHDs torrent.
7) Continue to the next step while the torrents are downloading.

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STEP 3 - Find out where the ROMs/CHDs .zip files are downloaded to
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There are 2 paths: The ROMs (70+GB) and The CHDs (500+GB). Do these steps to find both:
1) In qBittorrent: In the [Transfers] tab, right click the torrent name [MAME 0.2xx ROMs (merged)] or [MAME 0.2xx CHDs (merged)], you should see a small pop-up menu.
2) Left click [Open destination folder], a file manager should pop up.
3) In the file manager, look at the directory location ('directory' is also called 'folder' in windows).
4) Do it once for the ROMs and once for the CHDs, remember these 2 directories for the next step.

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STEP 4 - Add BOTH ROMs and CHDs directories to MAME
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Set MAME's ROMs directory to the two directories qBittorrent is downloading to:
1) Go to MAME's main screen (restart MAME if not sure)
2) Double click [Configure Options]
3) Double click [Configure Directories]
4) Double click [ROMs]
5) Double click [Add Folder]
6) Browse the directory tree using the [UP/DOWN/ENTER] key to select the correct directory (remembered from previous step).
7) Once you have found the final correct directory, just highlighting it is not enough, you must press [Enter] to enter it first, otherwise you'll just set the parent directory instead.
8) Once INSIDE the correct directory, press the [TAB] key on your keyboard to set the directory in MAME.
9) Double click [Return to Previous Menu]
10) Double click [Save Configuration]
11) Do this once for the ROMs directory and once for the CHDs directory. You need to add both directories for all ROMs to work.
12) If you are also downloading the partial update torrents (e.g. MAME - Update ROMs v0.2xx to v0.2xx), then you also need to add the update torrent's download directory by repeating step 1 to 10.

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STEP 5 - Decide on what ROMs to download and how often do you run audits in MAME
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Now that the ROMs/CHDs are downloading and the correct MAME directories are configured, you want to audit the download directories in MAME so that it will find all the newly downlodaded ROMs/CHDs .zip files.

During the audit, MAME will find the newly downloaded ROMs/CHDs .zip files and update MAME's internal database, newly downloaded ROMs/CHDs will show up in the [Available] section in MAME.

Depending on your goal and available time/bandwidth, you have 3 options:

1) Slow + Complete:
Wait for all ROMs/CHDs to be downloaded and update MAME database once (this takes much longer to see the ROMs from MAME because the file pieces are downloaded randomly across all files); or

2) Quick:
You only select a few favorite ROMs/CHDs to be downloaded, then update MAME database. You do this by going to qBittorrent, in [Transfers] tab left click a torrent (ROMs or CHDs), click the [Content] Tab, Tick/Untick ROMs/CHDs to download/not download (e.g. only tick 1941.zip, everything else unticked); or

3) Quick + Complete (Recommended):
You select all ROMs/CHDs to be downloaded, but you also enable 'Download in sequential order', so that all ROMs/CHDs will be downloaded one by one. Set your favorite ROMs/CHDs .zip to 'Maximum' priority so your favorite ROMs/CHDs will be downloaded first. Update MAME database once in a while after a new bunch of ROMs/CHDs are downloaded. You get the best of both worlds. Do this by:

a) Configure qBittorrent to download .zip files one by one:
In qBittorrent [Transfers] tab, right click a torrent, then select [torrent options...], then tick [Download in sequential order] and click [OK]. Do this once for the ROMs torrent and once for the CHDs torrent.

b) Configure qBittorrent to download your favorite ROMs first:
In qBittorrent [Transfers] tab, left click a torrent (ROMs or CHDs), click the [Content] tab, find your favorite ROM/CHD file (e.g. 1941.zip) and click on [Normal] in the Download Priority column, it'll pop up a selection of [Do not download/Normal/High/Maximum], select [Maximum]. Do this to EACH ROM/CHD .zip file you want to complete download first. (e.g. 1941.zip is on 'Maximum' priority while everything else is on 'Normal' priority)

This combination downloads ALL ROMs/CHDs sequentially one by one, and lets you to play your favorite ROMs first while the rest are downloading.

Each time one or a bunch of the ROM/CHD .zip reaches 100% download, you can goto MAME and audit the download directories, it'll add the new ROMs to the [Availabe] section, which brings us to the next step (audit ROMs/CHDs directories).

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STEP 6 - Audit the ROMs/CHDs directories and update the MAME database
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1) (In MAME window) Click the magnifying glass and select [Audit media for all XXXXX machines]
2) Wait for MAME to audit all ROMs and CHDs directories
3) The newly downloaded ROMs/CHDs will now show up in the [Available] section.
4) For subsequent audits, select [Audit media for X machines marked unavailable] instead in step 1, this skips the known completed ROMs and reduces audit time.

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STEP 7 (optional) - Install MAME Extras
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You can add extras such as in-game/title screenshots (snap/titles), cheats, etc to your MAME installation, you have two options:

1) The hard way:
This method is too complex and time consuming for the average MAME user, and is only recommended for those determined to chase after the absolute latest, for everyone else, wait a while for the new version of EXTRAs torrent to be released (see 'The easy way' below).

Download and install each extras component manually and set up your own perfect MAME, e.g. visit https://www.progettosnaps.net/snapshots/ and download [Snap > Full-Set 0.240 (pS_snap_full_240.zip)] and [Titles > Full-Set 0.240 (pS_titles_full_240.zip)] and the smaller 0.24x update packages. Decompress the snap zip, find the directory with 40000 .png files, move all the .png to MAME's [snap] directory. Decompress the titles zip, find the directory with 40000 .png files, move all the .png to MAME's [titles] directory. snap and title .png files have the exact same filename, don't mix them up. Get the cheat.zip from ( http://cheat.retrogames.com/mame_downloads.htm ), decompress it to MAME's cheat directory. You can also manually download and install the latest cabinet/flyers/manuals/etc.

2) The easy way (Recommended):
Get all the cabinet/cheats/manuals/snap/titles etc from a single [MAME Extras] torrent, it is not updated as regularly as MAME binary/ROMs/CHDs, but this way will save you a lot of work.

It doesn't matter if the MAME Extras are a few versions behind, the differences are minimal, you just see blank title/snap images on the newest ROMs, the rest works just fine. To add extras to your MAME, do this:

a) Download the [EXTRAs 0.xxx Full] torrent listed above, or

b) Copy the [EXTRAs 0.xxx Full] magnet link above (magnet:?xt=urn...)

c) In qBittorrent's window: If you downloaded the .torrent file, click [Open] and select the .torrent file then click [OK], if you copied the magnet link, click [Open URL], paste the link into the box then click [OK].

d) Set cheat.zip, snap.zip and titles.zip to [Maximum] priority in the [Content] tab if you want them to complete first.

e) Decompress the cheat.zip/titles.zip/snap.zip etc to MAME's root directory, it'll create the correct sub directories.

f) Restart MAME and check the result. If you don't see the cheat/title/snaps, double check that the decompressed directories and MAME directories configuration are the same, often the extra sub directories from the .zip aren't needed, so you move the files one parent directory above (\snap\snap to just \snap, \cheat\cheatxxxx to just \cheat).

g) To enable cheats:
i) (In MAME's main window) Click [Configure Options]
ii) Click [Miscellaneous Options]
iii) Set [Cheats] to [On]
iv) Click [Return to Previous Menu]
v) Click [Save Configuration]
vi) From now on when you are playing a ROM, press the [TAB] key and you should see [Cheat] in the menu.

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STEP 8 - Play and enjoy
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That's it, play your favorite ROMs and enjoy.

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Credits to pleasuredome for the magnet links, it also has a lot of other MAME data sets:
https://pleasuredome.github.io/pleasuredome/mame/
Guide by Rompacker:
https://archive.org/details/@rompacker

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This is the only archive with the 3ds bios and other files. Hopefully these each come in handy for development.

People who complain just want it taken down, because they are selfish heads.

Good luck.
As I look all over the web, this is the most complete collection. Now where is MESS?

Please answer somehow.

You don't torrent zip files. One, you need double the room to download it. Two, people don't want the entire library of MAME titles. Three, nobody can see what's available. Four, it goes against common sense.

Hi,
i developped a tiny Mame wrapper for linux and windows which download selectively missing roms/software on the rompath from theses internet archive collections.

see https://github.com/TiBeN/ia-mame

As the title says. This huge zip file is not corrupted, just need to unzip it using a 64 bit operating system. 32 bit OS can handle zip files up to 4Gb

I've downloaded the torrent for this file twice. Both to different physical hard drives and both times it shows me that firstly some of the files within the package are corrupt and then tells me that the file is unreadable. I've used standard ZIP, 7-Zip and even tried WinRAR all with the same effect. Either I'm missing something or this file is corrupt.

Pour les personnes qui ont des problemes au chargement (archive trop lourde),il faut cliquer sur le lien "Contents" a coté du lien de l'archive,vous obtiendrez la liste des fichiers de l'arhive sous forme de lien.Copier coller l'ensemble des liens dans un gestionnaire de telechargement (mipony) et voila plus besoin de chopper 42Go d'un coup, vous chopper les archives une par une

Most of the games the average person cares about have been working in MAME for years, so while this collection is a few versions behind it shouldn't matter to most.

As for Gandalf_007's complaint about lack of parity files, torrents are all checksummed. Tell your torrent client to recheck it. Even if you downloaded the big file over straight HTTP the torrent will happily check the file and fix any broken chunks.

If it still doesn't extract when the torrent says it's good, something's wrong with your computer.

As someone who collects and repairs classic arcade games, THANK YOU for hosting these! I could give a rip how many work in emulators. I only care about the real hardware, and this is an invaluable resource for people trying to preserve these games.

This HUGE file (almost 43 Gigabytes) does not have any parity files with it so there is no way to repair it if there are errors. I Downloaded the entire file and it won't even open due to some kind of error. I work with Rar and zip files all the time so I'm not a newbie. I only get so many DL bytes per month from my ISP and 43GB takes a huge chunk. Is there any way I can get some kind of repair files for this? In future, I would recommend making several smaller files instead of one huge file.
Oh, and those who whine about copyrights on these old games, only 1 in several hundred is worth a quarter. It's clear these games were designed to give the average gamer about 1 minute or less of play time per quarter. What a ripoff. Barely acceptable when free!

most of the game are not working.
have been tried with these emulator
mame32 ver.0.901
mameplus_bin-0.152r5100-20131231
MameUI_0.152_64_bits

only about 7-8 thousand are working from 28++ thousand file in this zip file 42GB.

anyone have any better emulator to work out ?
thanks.

Thank you for hosting this here; this is something worth archiving for prosperity and despite the aforementioned legal zeal in the comments, this certainly should fall under fare use as governed by my scrupples. We all spend $$$ on games and software which is rendered useless in the wake of the obsoletion of our hardware/software. We are all doggy locked (vendor lock in) and find ourselves buying the same old classics for each new system, where they rehash them using emulators. Multiple streams of income off the same game, X years later from the same damn consumer. My sympathies are not with content holders who have already made a packet off of their products and expect the gravy train to be never ending. F@#$ em if they can't take a joke.

Melody, Bryce and Martin, while your zeal for legality is laudable, the Internet Archive petitioned the Copyright Office of the US and in October 2003 received a set of clarifications and exemptions specifically for abandoned software (sometimes called "abandonware"). This applies to the United States jurisdiction, and may not apply to you all.

Details on the ruling and exemptions can be found here: http://archive.org/about/dmca.php and http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/librarian_statement_01.html

While I appreciate the noble intent of the uploader, 'historical value' (fair use) is probably not going to cut it here. Many of these games have trademarked characters that live on in modern incarnations; some of them are still being sold by their owners, wrapped in proprietary emulators; and many of these ROMs are 'bootlegs' and circumvent encryption and copy protection in direct violation of the DMCA. Further, many of these games are still in operation, in arcades, bus stations and amusement parks around the world.

Downloaders need to be aware that they may be committing a crime in their jurisdiction if they download and / or redistribute these files, display the games in a public setting, use any trademarked assets (such as sprites) contained therein without explicit permission from the manufacturer, or even just play the game.

To be completely safe, YOU MUST OWN AN ORIGINAL ROMSET of a game in order to use the copy of it contained within this archive FOR ANY PURPOSE, including personal amusement.

Of course, should IA release a formal statement clarifying legal advice they have received stating downloaders of this file are somehow exempt from copyright and trademark law, and in what capacity, the situation may change, but at this time, any downloader's legal position is questionable, and you have been warned. "I downloaded it from the Internet Archive, so that makes it okay," may not be a defensible position in a court of law.

Sorry to be a party-pooper, but it would suck even worse if an innocent downloader were to face legal penalties because they had the wrong impression. The vast majority of these ROMs are NOT free, neither in speech nor in beer. BEWARE.

No - copyright on these has not expired.

Most video games will have been written in the USA, where the Copyright term is Life of the Author + 70 years, Japan, Life + 50 years or the UK, Life + 70 years.

The earliest video arcade game (Computer Space) was released in 1971 - 42 years ago. So no video games are yet out of copyright.

I was wondering if the copyright of this ROM expired since they are now stored on Archive.org.

Please, don't get me wrong, I don't want to troll anybody, but it makes me wonder because I also want to preserve the IBM OS/2 software installers somewhere public and I don't know when it is going to be legal to do it.

Regards
Martín